


Open Doors

by gluhbirne1



Category: Being Human (UK)
Genre: Gen, I Don't Know Where This Is Going, chaos will ensue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-29
Updated: 2017-08-29
Packaged: 2018-12-21 08:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11940585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gluhbirne1/pseuds/gluhbirne1
Summary: The Devil's last act before being destroyed is to unlock the door to Hell. Things happen. Continues from the S5 finale (S4 finale for Annie/George/Nina).





	Open Doors

**Author's Note:**

> Annie and Eve enter the Afterlife and are reunited with George and Nina.

As Annie stepped through the door she was overwhelmed by bright light, so like the sun but gentle rather than intense. She felt baby Eve twitch but she did not make a sound. Annie took a step forward, and another and another, her footsteps gradually transforming from muffled silence into the patting of boots on tiles. So familiar. So comforting. To _hear_ her presence in the world. Something she had not been able to do for years. As her footsteps became clearer, so did her surroundings. She was in the house again. Honolulu Heights, looking just as it had the day before. Except that now, it didn’t carry with it a feeling of coldness and dread. It felt happy, sort of, well, like _home_. A warm fuzziness crept up in her stomach and she held Eve closer to her face and smiled as she kissed her. Then footsteps approached, and she turned to her left. Even though the grown-up Eve had told her they would be reunited, she hadn’t quite believed it. She hadn’t let herself believe it. But there he was.

“Annie?” George said, not quite believing it himself. “Annie!” He took two steps forward and nearly embraced her before he noticed the baby in her arms. “Is that…” he trailed off.

“Yes,” Annie answered, tears in her eyes. “Yes she is,”

George took Eve in his arms, holding her close and raising her up to his face. “Eve. Oh Eve,”

“George, what’s going on?” Nina stumbled into the living room, her face bemused until she saw George holding that small bundle in his arms. She stopped dead in her tracks, her hands partially covering her mouth in shock. She stood there for some seconds as if she was waiting for something to happen, for the baby to disappear or for her to wake up from a dream. But George took a step forward.

“It’s okay, Nina. It’s her. This is Eve.” He choked up, barely able to speak through the smiling tears. Nina rushed forward and cupped Eve’s face with her hands.

Annie watched from the hallway as her two friends shared an embrace with the baby they thought they’d lost. So that was it, she supposed. She had fulfilled her purpose to care for Eve until she could be reunited with her true parents. Her instinct was to rent-a-ghost herself away, but then she realised that was no longer a part of her skillset. So instead she just took a few steps back, and sat down on the stairs. A few moments passed until,

“Annie?”

It was Nina. She laughed and rushed forward to hug her friend. Annie gladly reciprocated.

“We were wondering where you’d gone,”

George came into the hallway with Eve in his arms and a gentle smile on his face.

“Join us in the living room?” Nina suggested.

“Yes, yes of course,” Annie said, nodding her head and smiling in almost disbelief. They were back together. They were really all going to be back together. The three of them sat down on the sofa.

“You need to tell us _everything_ ,” George said.

“Has she crawled yet?”

“Has she said her first word?”

“Do you sing songs to her? What’s her favourite song?”

“What?” Annie laughed a little nervously, “no! She’s only a month old, I mean, I’ve sung songs to her, _obviously_ , I would be a terrible mum if…” she trailed off. “Not that I’m her, you know,”

George and Nina paused to look at each other, their brows furrowed.

“Sorry, Annie. We didn’t mean to make you…” Nina said, her arm resting on Annie’s.

“You are her mum. We all are. Well, I’m her dad. You two are her mums.” George laughed almost as nervously as Annie. They were an awkward team, weren’t they?

They paused again, until Nina broke the silence. “Look at us! Back together again. We should be celebrating! George, make some tea!”

“Tea? What? Yes, tea!” He handed Eve to Nina, who shuffled along to sit right next to Annie.

“Oh, I can make it,” Annie said, and the couple turned to glare at her.

“After all those years you spent making us tea you couldn’t even drink, it’s our turn to make _you_ tea,” George said.

“Well, your turn. You lived with her longer.” Nina said with a playful smirk.

“Yes. My turn.” George said, standing up tall and straight and swinging round to walk to the kitchen. Never had he felt so proud to make a pot of tea.

Annie took Eve’s hand and shook it gently and cooed at her. Nina laughed. “She’s so beautiful,” Nina said.

“She is. Just like her parents.” The two fell silent again, but this time it was a comfortable silence that was broken every now and again by soft gurgles from Eve.

“So,” Annie said tentatively, “I can – I can definitely drink tea now?”

“Yep. You’re not a ghost anymore. You’re a human again, only you’re in the Afterlife.”

Right on cue George returned with a tray of mugs and a full-to-the-brim teapot.

“Oh, a teapot, how fancy,” Annie remarked in a mock-posh voice. She peered at the liquid as it flowed into the mugs. “Good colour, if a little on the pale side,” she joked.

“Hey!” George said. “I’m out of practice, okay?” He put the teapot down and passed her the mug.

Butterflies flew in Annie’s stomach. For the first time in _years_ she was going to drink some tea. She took a sip. “Not bad at all, 8 out of 10.” George glared at her. “Sorry,” she giggled. “It’s… it’s wonderful.” It really was. She could never have imagined such a small pleasure could carry so much meaning.

George poured the tea for himself and Nina, and sat down on Annie’s other side.

Annie settled further into the sofa and smiled. This was perfect. Well, nearly perfect. “So, when’s Mitchell back?”

George started, nearly spilling his tea. Nina gently put her's back on the table before turning to face Annie, her expression suddenly solemn. Something was wrong. Did Mitchell no longer live with them? Surely he hadn’t returned to the vampires, after all that had happened.

“Annie,” Nina said, “there are no vampires in the Afterlife.”

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter, Hal, Tom and Alex go on holiday, and Mitchell returns.


End file.
